NFL: Which Teams Were Awarded Compensatory Draft Picks in 2015?

On Monday afternoon, the NFL awarded 32 compensatory NFL Draft picks to 14 different franchises. The premise behind the league’s compensatory draft choice allocation is to help teams fill the holes left in their rosters by the departures of qualifying compensatory free agents through the bonus NFL Draft picks. The program started in 1994 and has awarded teams with a total of 683 draft picks over that span.

The exact formula the NFL uses to calculate player value and compensatory qualification is not public, but we do know enough to make educated forecasts on which teams will be awarded compensatory picks, and in what round said picks will fall in. Here is a quick rundown on the rules for NFL Compensatory Draft Picks:

A team may not receive more than 4 compensatory picks.

Compensatory picks cannot be traded.

There are 32 total picks that can be awarded.

Compensatory picks can only fall between rounds 3-7 in the NFL Draft.

Every free agent lost or gained has a different compensatory value.

The number of picks each team receives is equal to the net loss (players lost minus players gained) of compensatory free agents.

With that, here is a look at the 14 teams who received compensatory picks for the 2015 NFL Draft to make up for players who departed during the 2014 offseason.